Bristol car plummets 60ft into gardens below

A driver narrowly escaped disaster when she lost control of her car and it plummeted down a 60ft drop into back gardens in Bristol.

Terrified mum Amy Hatcher climbed out of her BMW unscathed after it crashed through a 5ft breeze block wall and into steeply-sloped gardens before narrowly missing a patio door.

The accident left a trail of devastation in Queensdown Gardens, Brislington, where pieces of the car and wall were sent flying into three gardens and onto patios.

Auxiliary nurse Vicky Avery, 23, and her partner Aaron Spells, 24, a firefighter, had been in their new home for less than 24 hours when the car landed on their patio against their brick shed.

Miss Avery was with Virgin Media cable installers in her lounge on Wednesday afternoon when she looked out of her patio door to see a car bouncing down her tiered garden from Withleigh Road, Knowle – a steep street which stretches uphill from above her back wall.

She said: "We heard an almighty bang and saw the car bouncing towards us. I saw rocks falling over the edge and then the car.

"I grabbed the cable man and said 'run' and we ran into the kitchen to get away from the back of the house. I didn't know if the car was going to smash through the patio door or through the house.

"It all happened so quickly and I was screaming and panicking. Then I went out the back and saw the woman getting out of the car. I can remember the Virgin man telling her to take the keys out of the ignition because he was worried the car would blow up.

"The driver was just sat on the steps and said she was worried about her baby and her husband – not about herself."

The police, fire service and ambulance service were all called to the scene and Mrs Hatcher, who was alone in the car, was taken to the Bristol Royal Infirmary by ambulance for a check-up.

Miss Avery said: "I was worried, she was running on adrenaline and had been hurt, but it turned out that she only had whiplash and a few bruises.

"She came down to our garden on Wednesday evening to check if we and the house was all right. She said the insurance would pay for all the damage, but we told her not to worry.

"She had a graze on her arm and said her back was sore.

"It could have been fatal. The only reason I didn't have the patio doors open was because I had only just found the key to open them. The whole thing was unbelievable."

Mrs Hatcher, who is in her 20s and married to Matthew, lives with her family in Withleigh Road, up the hill from the crash scene.

Still visibly shaken by the accident, she told the Evening Post she was OK but declined to comment about how the accident happened.

She said she was unable to talk about the crash because the matter was in the hands of her insurance company.

Mr Hatcher, a carpet fitter, said: "Amy's just a bit battered and bruised, but more shocked than anything. She's far too shaken to talk and just wants to be left alone for the moment. She's OK and that's the main thing for us."

Miss Avery's neighbour Tina Jennings, a 43-year-old sales assistant, said the noise created by the crash was 'absolutely horrific'.

She said: "I ran downstairs and asked if the woman was all right and she said she was. There were loads of people outside on the phones calling for an ambulance.

"We weren't sure if the car was safe to be left as it was and were worried about it catching fire."

Mr Spells was moving the couple's possessions from their rented home in St Anne's to their new home when he was told about the accident.

He said: "I was relieved that the car had landed on all four wheels and it was lucky it didn't tip over."

Financial advisor Rob Rowley, 64, who lives in Withleigh Road, rushed down to help the driver when he heard a 'series of big crashes'.

He said: "I looked over and there was lots of dust and I saw the woman staggering out of the car. I asked her if she had any pain. She said she had lower back pain and was incredibly shocked. She was worried about her little baby.

"There could have been a major incident if it had caught fire. She's a very fortunate young mum – it could have been horrendous."

Mr Rowley said no one in the street knew how the accident had happened.

Ms Jennings' partner Paul Hardiman, 46, a senior porter at Bristol University, said a barrier needed to be installed to prevent a repeat of the accident.

He said: "We had a van fall into the gardens about five years ago and in the 1970s a car went down right to the bottom of the gardens. There's not even a sign up to indicate there might be a danger.

"This has been an accident waiting to happen and we've been here for 22 years. If the hand brake goes on a car, there is nothing to stop it.

"It could be especially dangerous in the ice and snow. We would like to see strong metal bollards installed, a metal barrier like they have on the motorway, or a steel-enforced wall."

Yesterday afternoon, a recovery vehicle winched the BMW out of the garden and it was lifted onto a truck and taken away.

Steve Game, spokesman for Avon & Somerset police, said no action was being taken against Mrs Hatcher.

He said: "We are still looking into how it happened."